Repetitive calls at rookery

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Breeding Great Egret, Moonglow Dairy, Monterey, CA, 31 March.

Great Egret in basic (nonbreeding) plumage, Arcata, CA, 4 April.

Throughout most of the year Great Egrets have plain yellowish lores. During the height of the breeding season, however, they turn a bright lime green. The following is a link to this photographer's website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cameronrognan/.

Intermediate in size between the larger day herons and the smaller egrets, the elegant, stately Great Egret, in its dazzling white plumage, is widely recognized in North America and elsewhere. In the Western Hemisphere, the decimation of populations of this species and other wading birds during the early twentieth century by overhunting helped spark the formation of conservation and environmental organizations, as well as laws protecting these birds. Indeed, the Great Egret is the organizational symbol for one of the oldest such groups in the United States, the National Audubon Society.

Relationships among the Ardeidae (herons) have been revised or relisted several times, and both the common and scientific names have changed correspondingly. The Great Egret has been classified in the past under several genera, including its own monotypic genus, Casmerodius; with other egrets in Egretta; or allied with other large herons in Ardea. English names used in the past in North America include American Egret and Common Egret, while in the Old World it has been known as Great White Egret (or even Great White Heron). Over its broad worldwide range, 4 subspecies are recognized. This account focuses on populations in the Americas (Ardea alba egretta; see
American Ornithologists' Union. 1998a. Check-list of North American birds. 7th edition ed. Washington, D.C.: American Ornithologists' Union.
American Ornithologists' Union 1998a).